Description
The Project:
The proposed grant would provide supplementary support for the major permanent collection reinstallation project that the Asheville Art Museum launched in 2016 with partial support through a Luce Foundation grant of $375,000. The reinstallation is part of a major expansion and renovation that will result in new exhibition and classroom spaces, as well as 4,000 square feet of new, state-of-the-art galleries for permanent collection displays. The newly expanded galleries will represent a 70 percent increase in the space devoted to the permanent collection, and will highlight collection strengths including Eastern Cherokee arts, art from Black Mountain College, and studio crafts. The galleries will offer explorations of the historical and contemporary art and culture of Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia in the context of national trends in the arts. They will be organized according to key ideas associated Black Mountain College pedagogy, such as experiments in materials and forms, and collaboration and interdisciplinary dialogue.
The initial grant has supported: curatorial work; design and installation costs; consulting content specialist and catalogue author fees; and catalogue photography and printing.
Initially slated for completion in 2018, the project encountered unavoidable construction delays within its first year, resulting in the postponement of the opening until summer of 2019. Over the course of this extended work period, one of the collateral results of the expansion and renewed focus on permanent collection has been museum’s receipt of an extraordinary number of new gifts to the collection. The prolonged construction schedule has allowed for the time required to incorporate the new objects into the forthcoming collection catalogue and gallery installations.
The requested funds will be dedicated to the purchase of casework for these new acquisitions.
Rationale for Funding :
The Asheville Art Museum undertook this major project with the intent of dramatically enhancing the profile of it collections and related programmatic offerings for an enthusiastic and consistently expanding audience of regional visitors and national and international tourists. The fact that the project has already attracted significant gifts is a highly positive indication of the impact that this deepened and energized focus on collections will continue yield. The Foundation’s further support in the form of a modest grant will help this worthy museum and staff to make it to the finish line.
